By Ralph 'Onz' Chery

Manning State Cup and national double champions Lansdowne Bhoys will face CSL League Cup champions NY Athletic Club in the Manning Cup round of 16 on Sunday at 11:00 a.m. at Travers Island.

The two sides met a week before their upcoming game at Travers Island. Lansdowne edged Erik Bagwell’s side 3-2 with first half goals from Ovan Oakley, Lukas Zarges and Andrew Sousa. Jason Lampkin and Noah Kossoff netted for NY Athletic after the restart.

NYAC is the first and only team to score twice against the Bhoys this season in all competitions—13 games.

After scoring two goals against Lansdowne and holding them scoreless in a half NY Athletic head coach Bagwell feels that he has a strong understanding of the amateur champions’ style of play.

“We finally figured things out and put Lansdowne under a lot of pressure,” Bagwell said, “but couldn't find the net for that third tying goal. I think we have them figured out and should do better this weekend.”

The second-year NYAC coach also emphasized that his players will need to be at their best for the whole match on Sunday.

“Our challenge is to play our game for the full 90 minutes,” he said. “We had some early mental lapses in the match last Sunday and conceded some very sloppy goals that could have easily been prevented had we had been more focused.”

Bhoys head coach Austin Friel on the other hand doesn’t want his player to get carried away by last week’s win and said he will remind them that their victory over NYAC “means nothing” before the game. Friel also mentioned how tough of an opponent the seven-time CSL champions are.

“NYAC is a hard place to go. They are well organized and physical,” the Irishman said. “Every game we play there we have to be at our best."

The Yonkers based club is on top of the CSL with a 6-0-1 record and is undefeated in cup action as well this season. However their last two cup results are 0-0 draws to NY Greek Americans, who they lost to in penalties and NY Pancyprian Freedoms, who they outlasted in PKs, 4-3.

“Against the Pancyprians they [Lansdowne] also didn’t perform well,” Friel said, “it was the worst performance my players put since my time as a manager.”

As for NY Athletic, the team fell to NY Greeks 4-1 in the Werner Fricker Cup and defeated Kosmos United 5-2 [Manning Cup] in their two knockout games and is in fifth place in the CSL with a 3-2-2 record.

After staying in D1 by three points last year, NYAC rejuvenated their roster by bringing in 14 players during the offseason including former MLS defenders Patrick Slogic and Anthony Arena.

“We have a lot of experienced players that have played in a lot of big match at very high levels,” Bawell said. “Our biggest challenge is to be consistent throughout the season and for the entirety of our matches. If we can do that we'll be successful.”

One of NY Athletic Club's experienced players Dwight Ceballo, an ex-University of Connecticut defender, on the ball against NY Greek Americans last season. Picture by Dinos Avlontis

Friel also have faith in his players. “I believe if we work as hard as our opponents--we have a very talented group--we should have enough quality to qualify for the quarter finals.”

He later added: “Since the game versus the Pancyprians in the Open Cup [a 0-0 draw but 4-3 PK win] the players have been responding very well and each game we play we are getting back to the level that is expected of double national champions.”

Three key stats

1. NY Athletic Club is the first and only team to score two goals against Lansdowne Bhoys this season in their 3-2 loss to them last Sunday in the CSL.

2. Lansdowne played two scoreless draws in their last two cup games, against NY Pancyprian Freedoms in Open Cup qualifiers (won 4-3 in PKs) and against NY Greek Americans (lost 7-6 in PKs) in the Amateur Cup.

3. Lansdowne are undefeated this season in 13 outings.

Players to watch

Lansdowne Bhoys

Forward Ovan Oakley—Oakley leads the CSL in scoring with 10 goals in seven matches and scored against NYAC last week.

Lansdowne Bhoys star striker Ovan Oakley.

Bhoys head coach Austin Friel on Oakley: “Oakley is the best striker in the league by far, he’s now maturing more and more each game and I can see him scoring 30 plus goals this season. His pace and movement will cause problems to all defenses and I expect this to be the case on Sunday.”

NY Athletic Club

Jason Lampkin—Lampkin is NYAC’s top scorer in the CSL, tallying five goals. The forward netted last week against the Bhoys.